On A Winter Day
by FireRanger101
Summary: Slade Wilson isn't really a man to just sit around. But one winter day when he finds himself sitting in a park, he notices some teenagers playing around in the snow and one of them looks awfully familiar...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all! Its been brought to my attention that I had a bit of a problem with randomly switching between the first person point of view and third person point of view. When I re-read this to see, it drove me crazy so I edited the mistake out and cleaned the story up a bit. I hope you notice the difference and it helps you to enjoy the story even more than before!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans or Batman. If I did, then season 6 would not just be a rumor and would already exist by now. Complete with lots of Slade and Robin moments and Batman cameos!**

* * *

Slade Wilson was a very busy man. He was always doing something productive with his time, never allowing himself the chance to truly lay back and relax. He was constantly making plans and strategies for future scenarios and accepting jobs that were not always of the legal variety.

But somehow on this particular day, he found himself with nothing to do with his time. He had completed all his missions that he had been given over the week, as well as drafted many of his new concepts and ideas. Because of the fact that this type of thing never really happened anymore, he didn't exactly know what to do with himself. He thought about working out in his gym for a while, but that would only distract him for at most an hour or so. And so he found himself sitting around his bunker, staring at nothing in particular in the distance except a now very interesting bleak, gray wall.

"Slade, what are you doing?" Slade's old friend and butler had come up and noticed his charge's odd behavior.

"Nothing Wintergreen. Completely, and utterly, nothing." Slade grunted out, face resting on his fist.

"Then why don't you actually go out and do something?"

Slade thought about it, and decided that going out would be preferable to what he was doing right now. So, he stood up with a grunt, a wave to his comrade and went to get ready.

Winters in Gotham were infamous. Somehow, the season was able to make the city look even more gloomy and depressing than it usually was, quite the achievement because of the city's rep as being one of the most joyless in the nation. The cold would sink all the way to your bones if you didn't fight it with your warmest choice of attire. Because of this Slade had donned his heaviest winter overcoat, a deep black one with a high collar that he used to protect his face from the worst of the icy wind.

Now the reason that Slade was in Gotham in the first place was because of the fact that his last job had required him to assassinate a little-known politician that resides here. It went off without a hitch of course, not a single aspect of the job being unaccounted for by the known mercenary. Slade hadn't really seen the point to going back to his haunt in Jump, deciding to stay a few more days here in his hidden bunker at the outskirts of the city.

Besides, a certain little bird in Jump had suddenly disappeared, as if he was flying north for the winter like all the others. So, there was really no point in Slade returning for awhile, as there was nothing of interest in Jump until the feathered creature returned to his nest.

Slade found himself in the park located at the center of the area. It was surrounded by roads and skyscrapers, its small number of trees and actual grass-covered, albeit now dusted in the white of fallen snow, ground looking very out of place instead of the usual dirty grays and blacks that was everywhere else.

He simply strolled around for awhile, being one of the only ones there made the place calm and somewhat peaceful. There were only a few couples huddled together hand in hand; acting as if their love in each other was all the warmth they needed to not be too effected by the cold. Everyone else was either at work, shopping for the holidays or tucked away in their heated homes, hiding from the intruding frozen winter.

After a couple minutes of following the ice-covered paths winding throughout the park, the white-haired man settled himself onto a bench after dusting it of its coating of soft powder. He gave himself the chance to actually observe his new surroundings, and discovered that he was surrounded by bare trees and a small meadow of snow. A little way away was what looked like a small stage being built, probably for some Christmas festival in the near future.

He absently watched what looked like teenage volunteers as they set it up, laying out the base and then wooden planks on top, followed by stairs leading up to it on the side and finally deep red curtains being brought in and positioned as a backdrop.

"YOU HAVE _GOT_ TO BE _KIDDING_ ME!"

The mercenary tensed up slightly, but it was so slight that no one else besides himself would have been able to notice. That voice was very familiar to him; he looked around with his one good eye, expecting to be confronted by a certain spiky-haired rebel of a teenager. How said teenager would be able to recognize him without his mask was something that he questioned, but that kid always seemed to surprise him.

Slade was met with a different sight then the one that he had been expecting. When he found who he assumed to be the owner of the voice, it appeared to be someone similar to who he had been prepared to see, but subtly different. It was a boy around what looked to be 14 or 15, but it was hard to guess considering how small he looked to be for his age. Instead of his hair being styled in spikes, it was gelled back with not a single black strand out of place.

His back was to Slade, facing towards another teen. It was only then that Slade saw who was in the boy's company. There were two redheads with him, a freckled boy around 16 with a goofy smile adorning his face and another who appeared to be close to 17, looking much less cheerful than the other.

Slade's attention was brought back to the youngest and could practically hear the scowl that the kid probably had on when he talked. "Wally, its _freezing_ out here!"

The freckled one who Slade now knew as 'Wally' didn't really react in any way. "Come on, it's not that cold! Right Roy?"

The other redhead who was leaning against a tree with his arms crossed gave a grunt. "I'm on his side; I'm freezing my behind off. The only reason why I'm out here is because Dinah made me get out of the house."

The black-haired boy turned towards the direction of Wally. With a triumphant grin he said "See? Told you so."

"Then why did you even come along if it's so cold!?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you two literally _dragged_ me out here!"

The two started to argue, 'Roy' not really paying them any attention, just looking fed up with his situation.

Slade wasn't paying the chatter of the boys any mind, because his gaze was now intent on the face of the smallest teen. He had turned around and was now standing alongside Wally to argue at him. This gave Slade the chance to really scrutinize what he looked like and what Slade noticed first of all was the striking resemblance he had to that little bird back in Jump. The shape and configuration of his face all perfectly matched his.

He would probably have the distinctly tan skin too if it wasn't hidden behind a tinge of pink from the cold. But there was one large difference. There was no domino mask covering this child's face, it was completely unveiled for the world to see. Where Slade would have expected to see white lenses surrounded by black fabric, there were instead the deepest, bluest eyes that he had ever seen.

Slade was mesmerized by those eyes, so full of emotion and depth. They made the boy an open book, bringing forth anything he was feeling right to the forefront as, in this case very accurately described, windows to the soul. Slade could barely imagine what it would be like to have those eyes directed solely onto him.

Slade made himself stray away from further evaluating those eyes, deciding instead to focus back onto the conversion the boys were having. It was now getting to not be at as passionate a volume as before.

"Dick, weren't you the one who always wanted to play out in the snow every year? You'd be out in it all day long, the only way anyone could ever get you to go back inside was to either threaten or bribe you!"

"Yeah well, it's kinda different when I- *sneeze* I'm not exactly in the mood to."

Roy finally joined in the conversation with a curt "If he gets sick no one can blame me."

Wally looked crestfallen and dejected, the complete opposite of what he had looked like at first. "You two are a bunch of grinches."

"I'd prefer scrooge, seeing as how I feel the need to say 'Ba, Humbug!' right now," the older redhead said, the slightest hint of humor in his voice as he said it, as if he was trying to lift the other's mood.

"Haha, good one Roy," said the boy who Slade was now able to give the title of 'Dick' too. While he would have been able to fit a name to him later on back at the bunker through some research, it was quite nice to be able to have one for him now as he observed them.

The smile was back on Wally's face, his emotions once again doing a one-eighty. "Great, let's play some ice-ball!"

"Is that why you brought along the bucket?" Dick asked.

"Yep!" the redhead stated gleefully.

"Wally, is it really the best idea to play ice-ball? Do you even have a bat?" The raven asked cynically.

"One, it's always a good idea to play ice-ball. Two, yes I do have a bat, Roy just took it away from me."

"I don't trust idiots with objects that can cause bodily harm," Roy stated impassively.

"Words to live by," Dick said with the corners of his mouth lifting upwards, his mood lifting as it appeared he might have been thinking of past incidents involving Wally and harmful objects. At least, that was what Slade was guessing had caused the change in emotion. "I'll play, but as long as we stop as soon as more people start showing up. I don't want us to accidently hit anyone."

"Deal! Come on Roy, go get the bat and bucket!" The teenager responded by moving off the tree with a huff, going down a path and returning a few minutes later with the wooden object and bright orange home-depot bucket.

"Who wants what position?" Wally asked.

"I'll bat!" Dick replied, his enthusiasm to play now very evident.

"I'll pitch," Roy stated, still looking on the grumpy side but also kinda eager to play.

"Fine, then I'll be emperor!"

"Umpire, Wally," Roy told him with an eye roll, Dick shaking his head with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that. Let's play!"

They opened the bucket and inside were what appeared to be balls made out of, you guessed it, ice. Dick picked up the bat and got into position, Wally a little way behind him. Roy stood a few yards away and started winding up for the throw. He had a good arm, the ball flew through the air right towards the others. You could hear the sound of the ball cutting through the chilly air with a _swoosh_.

But the black-haired teen had it in his sights. He lined up the bat and his eyes narrowed into slits as he took aim for the projectile. A sly grin spread across his face, and Slade chuckled lightly, knowing that he was going to hit it just from the expression he was making.

And hit it he did. There was an almighty _CRACK!_ as wood met ice, and the orb sailed through the sky and continued to do so for a couple seconds. The gaze of the three teens and the unknown observer following its path. Its arc ended when it smashed into the trunk of a tree, a shattering crash could be heard as the sphere of ice broke into numerous crystal-like shards.

"DickthatwasAMAZING!" Wally's sentence tumbled out in a rush. He threw his arms into the air, exclamations and compliments about the hit coming out in a stream. Dick proceeded to give a laugh, and then run around the meadow in the shape of a diamond, pretending as if there were actual bases on a baseball field instead of nothing but snow. Roy had a warm smile on his face, and was watching both of the other boys as they had their child-like antics.

The game then started up again, Wally going to bat and missing the first couple of times until he hit one that traveled a few yards then right into the ground where it rolled. The freckled teen madly dashed around the square path that Dick had first made, trying desperately to stay ahead of Roy who had retrieved the ball and was now running after him with it. Dick cheered both of them on, as if he couldn't choose who to root for without upsetting the other.

It ended with Roy pouncing on top of Wally as he was just about to make it to 'home base.' He acted all mad about it for one second, then the next he was back to being overly cheerful and playing around with the others. They kept playing until they ran out of balls because they had either been smashed to bits or were too well hidden, which was around an hour later. They started to debate who had won, but it was obvious that not one of them had taken the initiative to keep track while they had been playing. It looked friendly sibling squabbling.

Slade, of course, had subconsciously kept score of the game for reasons unknown to even himself. He found that Wally had gotten a total of 7, Roy had 11 and Dick had gotten 19.

A strange emotion flitted upon Slade as he reflected on the game scores. Especially on how Dick had won so far ahead of the others. The emotion felt almost foreign to him, as if it was one he hadn't felt that often.

Then it hit him. Slade was feeling proud. He was feeling proud for this boy that he knew almost nothing about. It was an emotion that Slade could only ever remember feeling with his sons, so far back in the past, before everything had been destroyed. Like when Grant had shot his first bullseye on a target, or when Joseph had played the piano perfectly in a recital.

It appeared that there was more than met the eye with this kid. It seemed that some further observations were in order to truly get to know who Dick was, and if perhaps, that was not the only name that he went by.


	2. Chapter 2

After their game of ice-ball had ended and the arguing had faded away, the trio of boys appeared to decide that it would be nice to simply spend time with one another. Dick was currently sitting on a tree branch, laughing at the stories or jokes that the other two told below him and would join in occasionally with his own.

Slade tried to appear as casual and nondescript as possible throughout duration of time that he had spent watching them, his hands in his pockets and his eyes focused at the moment on the stage whose construction had been paused for the time being. His ears were still intently listening in on the youths, taking in the tales they told of funny family moments or embarrassing experiences.

Slade really couldn't understand why he was doing it, or what had drawn his attention to the three teens in the first place, besides the uncanny similarity that Dick had to a certain boy wonder. Perhaps it was just because it had been so long since he'd been able to see kids doing what they are supposed to do, act like kids. Slade was so used to them acting much more mature than their age because of their self-appointed roles as heroes and protectors. But this small band of two redheads and a black-haired teen were doing what children their age should be doing, enjoying life and just messing around. It looked so foreign and strange now.

As Slade shook out of his reminiscing, he heard a shout of exclamation. He turned his gaze subtly back towards the teens and saw something that very nearly brought a smile to his face. Dick was hanging upside down from the branch now, and Roy and Wally were trying to pelt him with snowballs. However, every time they threw one he would swing his body left or right or pull up to avoid it. Really it was a somewhat humorous sight, but I noticed how much skill was truly in it.

To move and sway like that was something that no ordinary teenager should be able to accomplish, the flexibility and expertise that was needed to do so usually being out of their realm of knowing. Strangely, Dick was doing it without a second thought, as if swinging and swaying nine feet above the ground was normal for him, strange indeed…

"And what are you boys up to?" A voice called out to Slade's right. He turned his gaze around slightly, and was able to make out the form of yet another redhead. This one was a teen girl, and she was making her way over to the boys.

"Hey Babs, what are you up to?" Dick called out to her. This Babs had gained all of their attention. Wally seemed to decide to use her as the perfect distraction. With an impish grin on his face he took aim and threw a snowball right in the direction of Dick's upside-down face as he conversed with the girl.

Right at the last second, Dick noticed the projectile and swung backwards, narrowly missing it. He then flipped off the branch and landed gracefully on his feet, only a soft crunch being heard from the snow beneath him as he touched down. He gave a short giggle as he saw the disappointed look on his friend's face, but it was cut off as he all of a sudden found himself flat on his back on the cold ground.

Babs, or Barbara, as Slade hypothesized was her full name, had sneaked up behind Dick while he was landing and had kicked his feet out from under him.

"How are you liking the view?" She said as she loomed over him. Roy and Wally were cracking up at the sight of their friend sprawled out on the ground. A slight blush was evident on the teen's face, having been shown up in such a way.

"Well, it could be better..." Then with a smirk, he gave a hard kick to the trunk of the tree that he had been swinging from only a moment before, and then launched himself back to his feet quickly. The movement from the kick caused a pile of snow that had been residing on a couple of branches to fall to the ground below and directly on top of the girl. She gave a little shriek as she was forced downwards from the weight of it, and was very nearly completely buried in the cold substance.

"Alright, it got better," Dick said so her, Roy and Wally continuing to laugh, only this time at the expense of Babs. She gave an irritated huff, and grabbed a handful of the snow that was still covering her and threw it hard at Dick. It missed of course, as he ducked away from it.

"Oh, it is so on!" He bent over and made as best a ball he could manage in the shortest amount of time, and pelted it at her. Quickly the redhead sprang away and out of the pile of snow, ducking behind a tree. "HEY! Aren't one of you going to help me out!?" she yelled in the direction of Wally and Roy, and after a shared look at each other Wally ran over to her position and started throwing balls at Dick and Roy.

Roy and Dick ran for cover, trying to make a barrier out of snow as quickly as possible while trying not to get hit by their enemies. They seemed to have come up with a strategy, because Roy started making snowballs and throwing them at their rivals while Dick worked on the wall.

After it was about to their noses if they crouched behind it, Dick joined in throwing snow with a somewhat creepy cackle of laughter. By this time, Slade noticed that more and more people were arriving at the park as they had finished up shopping for the time being or had finished work for the day. Before he knew it, there were children ranging from eight to maybe thirteen that were joining the ranks of the opposing teens, making it look like a full-out war.

Many of the parents simply conversed with one another, sending glances at their children's antics every now and then with small smiles or a chuckle from their lips, or from the overprotective ones a look of worry before their spouse or friend reassured them that everything was alright, that they were just playing.

It definitely appeared that they were all having fun in their little war, but Wally and Dick seemed to be enjoying it the most out of everyone. They were yelling insults at each other and acting all dramatic when one of their teammates was hit or they themselves almost were.

It then looked as if Wally considered it to be a good idea to try to storm the other side's 'fortress' by running at it head-on with a pile of white ammunition in his arms, trying to throw and run at them as best as he could manage.

Of course, he was then pelted at mercilessly. He gave a dramatic cry of pain, and then collapsed on the ground. All of the younger kids gasped, wondering if he truly was hurt while the older ones gave each other looks of confusion and/or humor.

"WALLY!" Dick jumped over the snow wall effortlessly, and sprinted over to the fallen redhead's side. "Wally, come on speak to me!"

"D-Dick? Is that really you?" Wally said in disbelief, reaching up a hand towards the other boy.

"Yeah Wally, I'm right here, your going to be okay!" He acted as if he was greatly distressed, and looked almost to the point of tears.

"Why did we do this Dickie? How could we have battled each other, I've always considered you to be a _brother…_ " The redhead was now talking very quietly and gravely, and sounded very reminiscent.

"I-I know Wally, you've always been a brother to me. Wally? Wally!" Dick was now clutching the limp but still breathing body to his own.

"NO!" He was now pretending to sob against his fallen friend, as if he was truly gone and had departed from this world. That is, until a snowball hit him dead-center in the back.

With a dramatic cry, he sprawled himself next to the redhead, his eyes closed and breathing slowed down, not a muscle moving. Everyone looked to the direction where the fatal blow had been thrown from, including Slade himself. And everyone looked directly to the perplexed face of Barbara, her hand still in the air from the act that she had just committed. "What?"

"KILL THE REDHEAD!" Some child screamed, and everything broke loose. A great mob of children from both sides charged the teen with snowballs in hand, shrieking war cries as they pelted and ran after her as she tried to make her escape.

Still Dick and Wally lied down not moving in the center of the supposed battleground, refusing to stop their ruse of death.

There was a small chuckle to the side and the one-eyed man noticed that Roy was still there behind the now trampled snow-wall, looking at his two friends with a look of pure amusement, warmth in his eyes and a smile that betrayed his true feelings for the two that Slade could tell he considered to be family.

Roy strode leisurely towards the two, and then kicked each of them in the side.

"OW!" Wally jolted up and put a hand to the injury, giving the culprit a sour look. "Roy, what was _that_ for?!"

"I don't know, maybe for you two acting like complete idiots." During this little squabble, Dick had remained motionless.

Roy gave an exasperated sigh. "Come on Dickie-bird, return to the land of the living now please, you're my ride home." When there was no response, he continued "do I need to kick you again?"

Slowly, the eyelids covering those blue orbs blinked once, then twice and looked up at the teenagers looking at him with a look of childish innocence. He sat up, supporting himself with his elbows and said "Wally? Roy? Are we dead?"

The two laughed and Wally sprang forward and hugged Dick around the neck. "No dude, where all alive and together again! It's a Christmas miracle!"

Dick looked as if he was choking, and by how hard he was being squeezed Slade wouldn't doubt if that was what was really happening. "Wally, if you don't let go then I _will_ kill you," he stated with a surprising amount of good threatening.

Wally gave a scared little 'he-he,' and quickly released his friend who rubbed his neck with a murderous little glare directed at him.

"Alright, enough with the 'tude, it's about time for us to be getting going, its late," Roy said with a pointed look towards the sky.

True to his word, the purples and pinks of sunset were adorning the sky above them, and Slade couldn't help but be surprised at how quickly time had passed by without him noticing it.

"Yeah, you're right Roy, it _is_ late," Dick said with a curious look above, as if he himself couldn't believe it either. "I'll call Alfred to pick us up."

"Ahh, then hot chocolate and his famous chocolate chip cookies!" Wally crowed, a look of absolute ravenous and eager anticipation on his face as it appeared that he was about to start drooling.

"Shouldn't we save your girlfriend first?" Roy said to Dick, a smirk on his face.

The other redhead joined in what appeared to be a very consistent past-time of theirs. "Yeah, _shouldn't_ we save her dude?"

Dick had a scowl and his cheeks looked slightly redder than usual than what they had been for most of the day because of the cold.

"She. Is. NOT. MY. GIRLFRIEND!"

Slade had a grin on his face and it took a little willpower not to just outright laugh; it looked as if the kid was about to start steaming, his face was so hot.

" _Whatever_ you say, Dickie," Roy said with a glint in his eye, looking as if he was proud of himself for being able to have such an affect on the youngest of them. And from the proceedings of the day, I thought that it definitely was something that appeared to not happen often.

"Enough about her, she'll live, let's just get going!" Wally said, that look of anticipation back on his face as thoughts of food probably returned.

Dick called this 'Alfred' character, and soon the trio was once again simply hanging out. None of them said anything; Slade guessed that they were just relishing the feeling of being together.

Soon the honk of a car could be heard, and they all looked up to see a sleek, black limousine. A man in formal attire, whom Slade guessed was most likely the butler to Dick, stepped out and waited for the boys to gather up the bucket and bat and race towards him, where he then opened the door and allowed them all to climb in before driving off.

Around an hour later Slade returned to the bunker and after a quick greeting to Wintergreen he was in his room thinking of everything that had occurred. Those three boys certainly had quite the day, and it had been somewhat fun for the mercenary to be able to watch it all.

Now, he found himself eager to wanting to return to Jump City. Perhaps Robin would be returning there soon as well. After all, he couldn't play out in the snow forever.

There would certainly be a new perspective that I will have for my apprentice, for before I had only ever really seen the mature, natural leader that he was. But now, I believe that I have witnessed the child that he truly is. And like every child, he still requires someone's guidance. For now, I won't do anything. I'll let him play and be the kid that he is, but soon I'll put my plan into action.

Every little bird has to return home from the winter, and this one may find that what he considers to be home might change in the near future.


	3. Bonus Chapter

"Hey, did you guys see that man who was sitting on the bench the entire time we were there?" Wally said as they drove back towards Wayne Manor.

"Yeah, I noticed him too. He was kinda creepy, just sitting there, not really doing anything but watching everyone," Roy replied to him. "What did you think of him, Dick?"

Of course he knew that Dick had noticed him too, he was a bat after all and everyone knows that if you're a bat, than you have an obligation to notice everything and everyone around you no matter if you're in hero or civilian mode.

After a second, Dick said "Yeah, I saw him." He seemed to consider his words, than continued. "I don't know why, but he seemed very - familiar… like I've seen him before."

"With that white hair and eye-patch, you'd think you would be able to remember him!" Wally stated.

"I know, he looked eccentric," the other redhead cut in.

"Yeah, weird…" Dick was now somewhat lost in thought about why the odd man who had been sitting in the park was nagging at his head, as if his brain was telling him that he _had_ to remember who this guy was, that it was someone important.

Such thoughts took a backseat in his mind however when they finally arrived at the manor. He, Roy and Wally got steaming mugs of hot chocolate and a plate of Alfred's famous cookies, and they all tucked in after expressing their gratitude to the butler.

An hour or so later whilst playing some videogames, the parents started arriving. Ollie and Dinah came to pick up Roy and then Barry came shortly after to pick up Wally. Before they left however, the trio set a date so that they would be able to spend another day just like this one, because it had been a much needed time of unwinding for all of them.

After Dick helped Alfred with cleaning up the others mugs and discarded plates, he settled himself into the couch to wait until Bruce got home. He planned to tell his father figure all about his day, and that they should have one like it soon with just the two of them. It kind of backfired though when he ended up falling asleep…

Bruce got back from work a little while later, and he was met with quite an adorable sight. His little bird was curled up on the couch cuddled up in a blanket, the blazing fire in the nearby fireplace casting a warm glow over his dozing form. Bruce walked over and tucked the blanket more securely around his little bird, making sure that he was as warm as possible. Then after giving the slumbering boy a light kiss on his forehead, he went to get dressed for patrol. For a second he considered waking up the boy, but expelled it from his mind. He rarely ever got sleep like this; it would do him good to get as much as possible. He expected to hear all about the teen's most likely eventful day with his two best friends first thing tomorrow, and a smile graced his face as he thought about Dick ecstatically recounting everything that had happened with that characteristic grin of his adorning his face as he did.

As he donned his cowl and cape, Dick slept on, dreaming. He dreamt of snowball fights with redheads and hitting home-runs with balls made of ice, all the while having the time of his life surrounded by the beautiful whites and blues that winter brings.

But, at the very edge of his thoughts, was what he thought he could make out as being a man with an orange and black mask, watching him the entire time.


End file.
